This disclosure relates to cleaning systems for heat exchanger tube bundles or the like.
Heat exchangers are known and used for transferring heat from a passing fluid to a working fluid conveyed through tube bundles. During operation, the interior of the tube bundles may collect deposits from elements within the working fluid such as debris, dirt, or other sources. The deposits may inhibit heat transfer. From time to time the tube bundles are cleaned to remove the deposits and restore efficient heat transfer.
One technique for cleaning the tube bundles involves inserting a smaller tube into each tube of the tube bundles and delivering high pressure cleaning fluid through the smaller tube to mechanically remove the deposits. In some cases, the smaller tube, or lance, may be a manually operated device such that is simply inserted into each tube. More recently, however, devices have been developed that include multiple lances for cleaning multiple tubes of the tube bundles at one time.
One challenge associated with multi-lance systems is that the tube bundles are relatively large and, therefore, the cleaning system used is also large and difficult to maneuver. For instance, the lances of the cleaning system must be relatively precisely aligned with the tubes of the heat exchanger in order to avoid damaging the heat exchanger or the cleaning system. Moreover, different tube bundles of different heat exchangers may have different sizes or spacing between the tube centerlines.